Patent GB-826722-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to knitting methods and machines
Inventor: SHELMIRE STANLEY RAYMOND
IPC: D04B15/58
Filed: 1955-10-27
Abstract: 826,722. Knitting-machines. SCOTT & WILLIAMS Inc. Oct. 27, 1955, No. 30747/58. Divided out of 825,207. Class 74 (2). A circular machine which can knit by reciprocation and which has, at a common feed, a group of yarn fingers selectively movable into and out of action, is provided, within the needle circle, with cutting and clamping means comprising a pair of co-operating clamping members resiliently pressed together, guide means positionable by pattern means, which also controls operation of the yarn feeding means when a yarn is withdrawn from action, first to guide the outgoing yarn into a mouth provided by the clamping elements and then to engage and sweep it towards the needle cylinder axis and between the clamping elements, means operative during the sweeping action to firmly augment the clamping pressure, which last means also actuates cutting means through a connection such that that actuation takes place after the yarn is firmly clamped, and means guiding the clamped yarn in a direction along its length and out of the clamping elements when its finger is lowered into action. Mounted on a common central post are clamping and cutting assemblies, one at each of the feeds. Each comprises a base 646 bearing a clamp 644, a fixed cutting- blade 650 and a lever 628 which, through a link 634 and pin 653, operates a yarn trapping lever 636 directly and a movable cutting-blade 652 through a slot 654 which introduces lost motion. The clamp 644 is urged against the base by a spring 648, the action of which is reinforced, in the clamping position, by pressure on the clamp of a projection 635 from the link 634. The lever 628 is urged down, in the clamping and cutting direction, by a spring 632 and can be raised, through an abutment 627, by a lever 624 operated from a trickwheel 540. The end of an inoperative yarn is held between clamp and base. When its finger is lowered to introduce it, the yarn is laid over a wire guide 660 (the clamp being " downstream " of the finger during counter-clockwise rotation) is seized by the needles and is carried beneath that guide and under the edge 647 of the base, so that the free end of the yarn is dragged out of the clamp in an " upstream " direction. When a yarn is withdrawn, its finger and the lever 628 are both raised. The yarn extending from the needles to the now raised finger is guided by a surface 638 of the lever 636 into a mouth provided by a bevelled upper face of the edge 647 and an upturned outer end of the clamp 644; thence, the yarn stretches over the base 646 and between blades 650 and 652. When the lever 628 is released, a hook 642 on lever 636 sweeps the yarn back under the clamp and then the cutting blade 652 closes. A spring 658 presses that blade laterally into engagement with fixed blade 650; and a wire abutment 662 prevents the yarn being dragged too deeply into the cutter. Inter-engaging flutes may be provided on the co-operating surfaces of clamp and base. The yarn fingers 520 are spring-urged downwardly into active position and are raised by trickwheel teeth acting through levers underlying the fingers. These fingers feeding inelastic yarns have pivoted ends 516 with wedgeshaped lower edges, to ensure proper location in the throats of the latch ring 34 during reciprocatory knitting. These pivoted ends have extensions 524 with wedge-shaped extremities, whereby the fingers, as they rise to inactivity, will become closed arranged side-by-side.